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Abstract:
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"Both in pre-revolutionary Russia and in the former Soviet Union, we find a strong tradition of collectiveness related to property rights and organization of farming. A large part of the Russian peasants was, before the revolution, organised in village communities, holding and partly operating land in common (opschina, mir). In western and southern parts (which includes today western Ukraine) individual farmers dominated. In the period between abolition of serfdom (1861) and forced collectivisation (1930-32) the number of individual farmers increased, much due to the Stolpin reforms. This increase was most pronounced in the South and West. Statistics from 1905 show that west of Dnepr (except for Kherson) less that 10% of the households were in communal tenure. After the revolution, theoretically individual property rights no longer existed, and after the collectivization individually operated farms also ceased to exists. Elements of individualism could still be found, not as formalized ownership rights, but related to the personal plots all rural families held and operated.
"Today Ukraine has opened up for new structures of ownership and property rights. The land is no longer supposed to be the sole property of the State, and large agricultural enterprises are no longer the only accepted way of farming. The development of new structures has just started and it is far too early to tell what the results will be. There are some indicators through, that patterns of collectivism and individualism are re-emerging. It seems now that peasants in the western part of Ukraine are more eager to use the opportunities in the new Land Code and establish themselves as individual farmers. This paper discusses collectivism and individualism in former Russian and Soviet Union and relates this to the development in Ukraine today."
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